footloose ferrett

The itinerary:

9 days: Paramaribo (Suriname) – Georgetown (Guyana) – Kaieteur Falls – Sumara Lodge – Lethem

Highlights: Pretty Paramaribo and its eclectic range of cuisines; Kaieteur falls; Amerindian experience at Sumara lodge; spotting a jaguar.

Lowlights: Good Friday in Georgetown (the whole city was closed); service in restaurants and cafes poor in Georgetown; red mud roads; pollution, noise and edginess in Georgetown – can seem unsafe and very dirty in places.

Enjoyable for: English and Dutch speakers who want to experience the Amazonian South America in their native language; waterfall enthusiasts; newbies to the Caribbean; people who love eating spicy Creole, Indonesian and East Indian foods.

Challenging for: Those without own transport; novice or unconfident travellers who are used to treading the beaten path.

“I’ll have to look that one up on a map,” was what my mum said when I told her that I was in the capital of Suriname. To be honest, if you’d asked me a year ago I might have guessed the South Pacific or Central Africa... However if you’d asked your average Dutch person, they’d probably have pointed right to the spot (Northern South America squished between French Guiana and Guyana). Why would a Hollander know this? Because Suriname is a former Dutch colony, Dutch is Suriname’s official language and around 400,000 Surinamese citizens live in the Netherlands (the population of Suriname itself is just under 500,000!).

As the focal point of this small country, Paramaribo manages to mix together grandness with quaintness in a very classy way. The historic centre comprises 18th and 19th century neo-Normanic wooden-panelled buildings all painted white and dark green and well-restored with nice touches, like flowerpots and ornate carved trimmings. The Presidential Palace is grand enough for any world President and the large wooden cathedral very impressive to see. On the riverside is Fort Zeeland which has some good examples of Dutch architecture and a museum. Contrastingly, further up the riverfront the grandeur dissipates in a vibrant mix of cultures as you approach the local market – a bustling and colourful affair selling fruits, fishes and cheap clothes.

We loved wandering the streets of this small city – it was compact and felt relatively secure even outside the historic centre (though best to stick to what you know at night, on advice of the locals). Dotted around the city were fantastic Dutch and Indonesian cafes selling good pancakes, bitterballen and gado-gado. For an even cheaper bite there are the great East Indian roti shops selling delicious piping-hot and spicy potato curry with rotis and vegetables. As for nightlife, the city boasts an enormous amount of casinos and Rhino spent one evening teaching me roulette though I quickly tired of this and dragged him off to karaoke where some Dutch students were singing Dutch folk songs.

With great regret, the capital Paramaribo was the only place that we visited in Suriname but our three day stay was lovely enough to have me wanting come back for seconds one day when I have more time and the opportunity to delve into the Amazonian interior. The people were friendly, the hostels good-quality and the food delicious and often spicy!

Our journey from Suriname to Guyana was a mix of coastal roads and a ferry crossing at the border. We crossed the world’s longest floating bridge (or so I’m told) which is constructed to let boats pass through the middle when needed and arrived in the capital, Georgetown. After the lovely colonial gems of Cayenne and Paramaribo, we were hoping that good old Blighty had left a similar legacy in Georgetown. Okay, the colonial architects had done a pretty nice job with grand government buildings, wide avenues, a really ornate wooden town hall and a large wooden Anglican church (not being Catholic, a change for South America) but what they hadn’t bargained on in the nineteenth century was the pollution and traffic that would arrive later. The open canals/drains were filled with rubbish and scum, a perfect breeding ground for disease, and the wide avenues were abused by a city of crazy drivers who honked and accelerated rather than stopped at junctions. The formerly beautiful botanical gardens disappointingly had plastic bottles floating in the manatee enclosure, the cinema was last renovated in around 1920 and even the popular cricket ground looked fairly derelict from the outside.

Unfortunately, the town centre has an edgy vibe at night and the few streetlights mean you could easily fall in an open sewer. Our hotel room looked over the cells of the next-door magistrates’ court so from 7am until late-afternoon if you looked out the window all you could see is handcuffed men behind barred doors shouting at guards with guns. Georgetown isn’t all shabbiness though and driving into the city through the suburbs were huge, modern mansions and private estates. The locals seemed to enjoy the seafront too, flying their kites and taking daily strolls.

Guyana has the largest population of the Guianas and according to our guidebook, more than 43% of the population is of East Indian origin. Like its neighbours, the food is excellent and varied and reflects the make-up of the population. Unfortunately, the theme in this city was good food but poor service. We were in town over Easter weekend and unfortunately almost everything was closed on Good Friday but luckily we were able to buy lots of Hot Cross Buns!

Guyana’s biggest attraction is without a doubt the magnificent Kaieteur Waterfall. Little known, it’s actually the longest single-drop waterfall in the world and is up there with the greats (Victoria, Niagara, Iguazu and Angel) for waterfall enthusiasts, like Rhino! Our flight over the falls cost US$220 but if you go to Orinduik Falls as well for a swim it’s US$270. It was a 45 minute flight chartered with Roraima Air in a rather ramshackle plane (sample comment: “I just saw something fall off the plane!”) but we made it.

Seeing the falls for the first time from the air was breathtaking – the thunderous falls in a remote rainforest location miles from civilisation. When the plane landed at the falls we were taken to several viewing points and through some rainforest by a guide, although it rained heavily for much of the time. We also saw some golden frogs which are minute but have a poison that is 128 times more powerful than cocaine (we weren’t allowed to lick them...) and we caught a glimpse of the famous bird Cock of the Rock, a bright orange bird found only in this area.